Lina Marsh

{{Infobox artist

| name = Lina Marsh

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| birth_date = {{Birth based on age as of date|45|2018|05|05}}{{cite news |title=A broad canvas |url=https://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/profile-people/a-broad-canvas |access-date=21 February 2024 |work=The Gisborne Herald |date=5 May 2018 |url-access=subscription}}

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| nationality = New Zealand and Niuean

| education = Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design

| known_for = Mixed-media artworks

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| children = 5

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Lina Marsh (born 1972/73) is a mixed-media artist, arts educator and curator based in Gisborne, New Zealand.{{cite news |title=Niuean-Māori artist using art to explore contemporary Pacific culture |url=https://tpplus.co.nz/entertainment/niuean-maori-artist-using-art-to-explore-contemporary-pacific-culture/ |access-date=21 February 2024 |work=Tagata Pasifika Plus |date=14 June 2019 |language=en-NZ}} Her works often feature elements of handicrafts such as weaving and embroidery, and explore issues of identity as a Niuean-Māori woman and incorporate her personal experiences.

Early life and education

Marsh grew up in Auckland and Hokianga and is of Niuean and Māori descent.{{Cite web |title=LINA MARSH |url=http://archive.tautai.org/artist/lina-marsh/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240128095656/http://archive.tautai.org/artist/lina-marsh/ |archive-date=2024-01-28 |website=TAUTAI - GUIDING PACIFIC ARTS |language=en-US}}{{cite news |title=Artists tutor Pacific youth at free classes |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/news/artists-tutor-pacific-youth-at-free-classes/H56F2XYSY24TABWZ6QBZWWDLDM/ |access-date=21 February 2024 |work=Hawke's Bay Today |date=12 September 2012 |page=A5}} Her mother migrated from Niue to Auckland as a young child in the 1950s. Her father was Māori and from Horeke, Hokianga, where Marsh spent most of her early childhood. Her parents met at Western Springs College and were members of the Polynesian Panthers, a political movement advocating against racial injustice. Marsh attended Mt Roskill Grammar School where she excelled at art.

Marsh's art has been inspired by her mother and grandmother, who imparted sewing skills that became foundational to her later works.{{Cite web |date=2017-10-01 |title=The powerful miniatures of Lina Marsh |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/standing-room-only/audio/201860708/the-powerful-miniatures-of-lina-marsh |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Radio New Zealand |language=en-nz}} At the age of 8, Marsh joined her local knitting club, and went on to develop her crafting skills under the guidance of her mother, grandmother, and other women in the community. Marsh has said she sees stitching as a form of ritual connecting her to her matriarchal line and femininity.{{Citation |title=Artist film: Lina Marsh - Coral Reef Couch |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv7BawWgJgc |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=YouTube |language=en}}{{cite news |title=Tairawhiti Museum exhibition, Colonies |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018809076/tairawhiti-museum-exhibition-colonies |access-date=21 February 2024 |work=Radio New Zealand |date=20 August 2021 |language=en-nz}}

Her Niuean heritage, commemorated through handicrafts, embroidery, crochet, and stitching, became a significant influence. Marsh went on to study at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, where she exhibited and won several awards for her work.{{cn|date=February 2024}} She graduated from Whitecliffe with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, majoring in painting, and later completed a diploma in secondary teaching.{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Talia |title=lina marsh: looking forward, looking back |url=https://issuu.com/tautaipacificartstrust/docs/sept_2013 |access-date=21 February 2024 |work=Tautai Pacific Arts Trust |date=September 2013 |page=1 |language=en}}

Career

=Artwork=

At Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Marsh incorporated her personal experiences as a Pasifika-Māori woman into her paintings and addressed issues such as feminism, colonisation, assimilation, migration and contemporary Pacific cultures. She has continued to explore these themes in her post-graduation career, including through mixed media artworks and the use of print-making, collage, sculpture, crochet, embroidery and knitting. Through the Pacific Studies teacher at Whitecliffe she began working with Tautai Pacific Arts Trust.

Marsh participated in the worldwide exhibition CowParade in 2002 creating a woven cow using 600 harakeke. After moving to Gisborne in 2005, she exhibited her work as part of the National Women's Art Exhibition held there in 2006 and received an award. The following year she won the sculpture category in the same exhibition for her work Tahi, Tahi, One, which involved the creation of hiapo (traditional Niuean cloth) ponchos. In Rarotonga in 2007 she exhibited work for the show Longitude, which also travelled to Switzerland in 2011. Tahi, Tahi, One was exhibited as part of the Kau Auloa exhibition at the first Niue Arts and Culture Taoga Festival in 2009. A decade later in 2019 Marsh returned to the island to paint a mural for the same annual festival.

She has painted a number of notable murals in Gisborne, including artworks for the Gisborne District Council and for Makaraka School. In 2018 she painted a mural for Gisborne's public library.{{cite web |title=Inspiring mural to welcome library visitors |url=https://www.eastland.nz/2018/04/09/inspiring-mural-welcome-library-visitors/ |website=Eastland Group |access-date=21 February 2024 |page=9 April 2018}} In 2017 she participated in the exhibition Te Ha which commemorated James Cook's first encounter with Māori at Te Tairawhiti. Her works, displayed in Gisborne shops, were miniature sculptures that often commented on societal issues affecting Māori and Pasifika communities.

In 2021 Marsh curated and participated in the exhibition Colonies held at Tairawhiti Museum.{{Cite web |title=Colonies |url=https://tairawhitimuseum.org.nz/exhibition/colonies/ |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=Tairawhiti Museum |language=en-NZ}} Sustainability was a key theme of the exhibition with all artwork using recycled material. Her work for this exhibition included Coral Reef Couch, a crochet collaboration between herself and her mother inspired by coral reefs.{{cite news |last=Sharma |first=Akula |title=Passing on knowledge key to craftwork survival |url=https://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/news/passing-on-knowledge-key-to-craftwork-survival |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=The Gisborne Herald |date=16 August 2021 |url-access=subscription}} She also held workshops during the exhibition during which participants created coral-inspired art.

=Curation=

As an established artist, Marsh began curating exhibitions predominantly in Auckland and Gisborne, New Zealand. The first show she curated was Pick Me Up and Hold Me (2005) at Artstation, Auckland.{{cn|date=February 2024}} In 2013 she curated To Be Pacific, the first large contemporary Pacific art exhibition in Gisborne at Tairāwhiti Museum.{{cite news |last1=Amery |first1=Mark |title=On the Edges: Tairāwhiti Gisborne |url=https://thebigidea.nz/stories/on-the-edges-tairawhiti-gisborne |access-date=22 February 2024 |work=The Big Idea |date=27 July 2017}}{{Citation |title=To Be Pacific - Tairawhiti Museum |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMy6S8zh6gY |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=YouTube |language=en}}

Other shows curated by Marsh at Tairawhiti Museum include Scent (2008), Davy Jones's Locker (2010), Top Art Regional Folio Exhibition (2014),{{cn|date=February 2024}} Taonga Tuku Iho (2016){{cite web |title=Tui! Tui! Tuiatuia! |url=https://tairawhitimuseum.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/September_Spring_2016_B_small.pdf |website=Tairāwhiti Museum |access-date=23 February 2024 |date=September 2016}} and the 100 Day Project (2017). She was a board member of Tairawhiti Museum,{{cn|date=February 2024}} and in 2017 became president of the Friends of the Museum Committee.{{cite web |title=Tui! Tui! Tuiatuia! |website=Tairāwhiti Museum |url=https://tairawhitimuseum.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/December-Sumer_2017_Web.pdf |date=December 2017 |access-date=23 February 2024}}

=Arts education=

Marsh has taught art at a secondary school level, including at Penrose High School. {{As of|2018}} she taught product design as part of the technology curriculum at Gisborne Girls' High School. At Tairawhiti Museum she was an educator for the Ministry of Education's outside the classroom curriculum support project. She has also taught Fresh Horizons workshops, designed for senior high school students of Pacific Island heritage, at venues such as the Eastern Institute of Technology on behalf of the Tautai Contemporary Pacific Arts Trust.

Personal life

Marsh has played the theremin and piano in an all-female punk band called Suki and the Disappointments since 2021.{{Cite web |date=2021-10-19 |title=Local Focus: Gisborne's Noise Vacancy |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/local-focus-gisbornes-noisy-vacancy-for-artists/X6N5JD5DO5I62ZYDQW6YD5KFGU/ |access-date=2024-01-28 |website=The New Zealand Herald |language=en-NZ}} She is the mother of five children.

Awards, scholarships and prizes

2006: Winner of the Mixed-Media Category at the National Women's Art Exhibition{{cn|date=February 2024}}
2007: Winner of the Sculpture Category at the National Women's Art Exhibition
2007: Recipient of a Creative New Zealand Arts Grant{{cn|date=February 2024}}